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Hockey

Soo Greyhounds take Game 2 for a 2-0 series lead over Sarnia

Sam Studnicka is sent flying after a collision with Timmy Gettinger of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds during Game 2 of the Ontario Hockey League Western Conference quarter-final on Sunday March 27, 2016 in Sarnia, Ont. Terry Bridge/Sarnia Observer/Postmedia Network

After a lifeless opening 40 minutes, the Sarnia Sting found their game in the third period and out-shot their opponent 24-3 but it wasn't enough in a 5-2 loss to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Anthony Salinitri and Matt Mistele scored final-frame goals for the Sting Sunday afternoon at home but Greyhounds forward Zach Senyshyn quashed the comeback with his second score of the game with 5:45 remaining.

Earlier strikes from Senyshyn, Boris Katchouk, Timmy Gettinger and Bobby MacIntyre proved to be enough as the 'Hounds won both contests in Sarnia for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Ontario Hockey League first-round series.

Game 3 is in Sault Ste. Marie Tuesday night.

“It's big, but there's still a lot of hockey left,” Soo head coach Drew Bannister said of taking both games in Sarnia. “We've shown that we're a good road team but they're an excellent hockey club, you can see when they really get to work they're difficult to handle. So a lot of work left.”

Already up 1-0 as Senyshyn had the lone tally of the opening period in front of a light crowd of 2,947 at the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre, the Greyhounds scored all three goals of the second stanza.

“It just seems like every time we have a breakdown now it ends up in our net,” Sting head coach Derian Hatcher said. “It's tough but we've got to rebound, and that's the bottom line. I know we play well up there, so we've just got to go with everything we have now for Game 3.”

Sting netminder Charlie Graham allowed four goals on 22 shots over the first two periods. Justin Fazio, who hadn't played since suffering a knee ailment in a regular-season game against the Soo March 3, started the third period and kicked aside two of three shots while a fourth attempt rang off the post. Hatcher said he hasn't decided who will start Game 3.

At the other end, Soo goalie Brandon Halverson made 39 saves.

“Our goalie was excellent for us in the third kind of to keep us in that game when we were kind of running around a little bit, but they pushed hard on us to get themselves back in that game,” Bannister said. “Our goaltender made some big stops for us.”

Sting forward Travis Konecny was noticeably absent for the majority of the second period – “I was just in the room for a bit and came back out to play,” he explained – then returned with just 1:47 remaining in the frame and took two short-handed shifts. He picked up an assist on Mistele's power-play goal with nine minutes left in regulation to temporarily trim the deficit to 4-2.

“I feel a couple of bounces just went their way,” Konecny said. “We seemed to finish it off pretty good and pushing the pace, but we've just got to figure out how to play a full 60 minutes against these guys.

“It's definitely going to be a long series so we're not looking to shut it down after seeing what we can do in the third period, we're going to try and transition that into the next game here.”

Katchouk initially handed his club a 2-0 lead at the conclusion of two long shifts in Sarnia's zone early in the second period. Gettinger upped the advantage to three midway through the game, and MacIntyre scored the fourth goal with 4:45 remaining in the second just as a power play expired.

“The first two periods we played well. Early on I thought they came hard and then we were able to get that one goal late in the period that kind of took a little bit of the wind out of their sails,” Bannister said. “We were able to carry that momentum through to the second period, it was a good period for us, obviously, and then they had a lot of push back, they came hard at us.”

Sting forward Ryan McGregor said the slow start proved costly.

“We came out flat, started to come back in the third there, we worked our ass off we've just got to play like that the whole game,” McGregor said. “I think the way we played in the third, that's the way we're going to come out the next game and we should be good.”

Salinitri, a former Greyhound, scored for the home side around six-and-a-half minutes into the last period.

“Before the third period there that was the first two goals we scored five-on-five (all series),” Hatcher said. “To me that's our biggest area we need to dig in a little bit more consistently and create more five-on-five.”

Sault Ste. Marie was 0-for-5 with the man advantage while Sarnia was 1-for-3.

Sting forward Patrick White returned to the lineup for Game 2 after missing his team's final six regular-season games and the series opener with a chest injury.

“I felt pretty good individually, but that's still not the outcome that we wanted,” White said. “We just have to play our game, I felt like we got away from it just running around to hit guys and stuff like that, we just need to play our game, use our speed and things will happen for us.”